On Stalking, Harassment, and Character Assassination

[Seyoun]

You won't see him here. He has declined the invitation in a very vulgar manner - that is out there online to read for any who would chance upon it.

[LadyR]

I've seen the PF's and while I most certainly don't agree with said person's methods - you are no so sweet and innocent. You "career crafter" who make a career of jacking up the prices on Zalera's marketboard to ridiculous proportions or undercut everyone's mother's brother. Our economy is so F-ed in the butt thanks to you elitist jerks. You with your elite only crafting linkshell where you sit on your high horse looking down on "not-as-elite-as-you" crafters. I know someone who tried to join your crafting linkshell and was denied in spite of meeting the qualifications from your PF. Neither you nor your said harrasser are innocent but you should cut your bs.

[Seyoun]

You "career crafter" who make a career of jacking up the prices on Zalera's marketboard to ridiculous proportions...

Do I really jack up prices to ridiculous proportions? Let's dissect that claim, it's an interesting one and I enjoy talking about the economy.

When new crafted items are released, the first ones made are always overpriced - this is the reward that veteran crafters reap for dumping hundreds of hours and tens of millions of gil into their gear. Keeping prices that high for more than a week or so, especially at "ridiculous" levels is not possible. The reason is very simple: Supply increases. As time progresses, other crafters become capable of supplying the market and prices drop. If your claim is that I jack prices up to unsustainable levels, I respectfully disagree as such a claim is in direct conflict with how the market actually works. If you try to jack prices and keep them there, you will be undersold and not sell anything at all.

Our economy is so F-ed in the butt thanks to you elitist jerks.

There are thousands of items in play in the economy and hundreds that are significant. A linkshell of twenty or so regular players, not all of which craft all the time, are not capable of controlling an entire economy. Not to mention the number of retainer slots you'd need to even attempt a generalized market takeover.

I know someone who tried to join your crafting linkshell and was denied in spite of meeting the qualifications from your PF.

The requirements for joining the LS is to be able to craft at least two star items. Do you think it is unreasonable for a dedicated crafting linkshell to have such a requirement? I think I know who you are talking about since I have only ever denied entry to one applicant (which is hardly being elitist). The reason for that was not because of his gear, which was fine, but for other reasons.

You with your elite only crafting linkshell where you sit on your high horse looking down on "not-as-elite-as-you" crafters.

We are not "elite" and do not, nor have we ever, presented ourselves as such. We do not and have never disparaged, looked down, or talked down to anyone. I do not know what has given you that impression but this claim is patently untrue.

Neither you nor your said harrasser are innocent but you should cut your bs.

I disagree. My selling and buying on the marketboard has no relationship or bearing regarding being "innocent" or "guilty" of anything. Crafting, selling, and buying are facets of the game in which I engage. Do I undercut people? Yes, I do. Everyone does. I get undercut too - all the time. It is not fun to be undercut when you are trying to sell something. I get that. But it is the single most fundamental activity in the process of selling. You undercut the competition or otherwise do not sell your product. In other words: It is a competition.

On the other hand, the things that I have described in my initial post that are outside the activities of crafting, selling, and buying are both against the ToS and quite frankly, unacceptable. So I maintain my claims, without modification, in their entirety.

I do not wish to end this response as coming off as attacking you. You have presented an argument and I am responding to that argument. Of course, you can respond, and I will respond in turn.

[Cwestcott18]

Lol elitist, don't put everyone in the same category, there are some who do boost things up over their actual worth, but the time and mats that are put into an items sometimes is justified. There is a lot of time put into it all, on the MB i try to keep it fair, but if someone personally tries to ask me, i help them the best i can even if they might not have the mats or the crystals/shards.

Plus if an LS denied your friend from joining because they are "unqualified" that's based on their own leaders and not anyone else.

If you truly feel the way you do about "elitist" crafter's then i invite you to join in and try and make a difference

[Cold_Raven]

I wouldn't worry about it and continue to do what you're doing... ignore, ban and report when you can.

You say your reputation as a crafter is everything, but this is more a personal-opinion of yourself more than anything else.

On Zalera... 80%, may 90% of MB purchases are made without even reading who the retainer is (maybe laughing if the name is funny...).
So, for the most part, your "reputation" one way or the other matters litte.

There will be, however, that 10-20% where your reputation means a lot. These will be high-end-game purchasers looking for fast, reliable, reasonable prices and gear and such.
This is where you are correct, and your reputation can hurt you.

But, I think you're over-stating how much one person can actually hurt this reputation.

Because that 10-20% where reputation-actually-matters is so small, it necessarily forces the buyer-seller relationship to be rather high.
If you're decent in all your transactions... no word-of-mouth from a single individual, no matter how repetitive or vulgar would be able to make any significant dent anyway.
Those who know you from the required high-personal-relationship simply wouldn't care as long as you continue to provide excellent service at excellent prices.

I'm sure it's a personally horrible experience to go through.
But if you continue to be a decent fellow, I wouldn't worry about it. The blustering will bluster along soon enough. Continue to ignore, ban and report and they will eventually get bored as no one will care.

Have fun!

[Seyoun]

I wouldn't worry about it and continue to do what you're doing... ignore, ban and report when you can...
Continue to ignore, ban and report and they will eventually get bored as no one will care.

Thanks for the kind words, CR. And keep rockin' that King Slime crown!

[Seyoun]

Hey guys,

Thank you to the people who are behind the nearly 900 views that this thread has received. I'd never have believed a thread tucked away in a Server section would have gotten so much exposure (other than that behemoth RL picture thread) . The fact that this has received so many views is testament this sort of matter does concern the community; that you really do care - and I am duly humbled.

Thank you all.

It has been a while since my initial post so the number of eyes that will see this is likely a lot smaller. I want to leave some final words to all of you - on Zalera and elsewhere: If there are persons in the game harassing you - and by that I do not mean a one-off thing where someone just loses their temper - we're all guilty of that from time to time. But instead a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks designed to destroy your gaming experience - you should not respond in kind but also shouldn't quietly endure it either. Report the activity to SE by opening your main menu: Support => Contact Us => Report Harassment. Leave a succinct explanation of your harasser's conduct at that time. A GM will respond to you not too long afterward to get further details of the incident to determine the proper actions to take (if any.)

Don't sit and take abuse. Report it.

Enjoy your time in the beautiful world of Eorzea, everyone - and thanks for reading! And to my exalted and most beloved fellows on Zalera: I will see _YOU_ on the marketboard.

Veena Minerva, out!

[Cold_Raven]

Hi Veena,

I understand you may be having issues again, from the same person, even?

Regardless, the advice on how to deal with it remains the same: blacklist, ban and report.

That seems cold-hearted (such a simple solution to write out!) for such a flagrant problem (personal attacks are, well, personal). But in the online world, there's not much more that can be done. Some of that works against you, and some actually works for you as well.

All I can say is that even if it isn't seemingly doing anything... don't worry, it is. Behinds the scenes is a mess because it has to work for so many different end users, but it's controlled and everything helps to weed out the baddies eventually.
I have nothing to do with SE (or even video game development in general). But I work a lot with programming and large client bases... I'd imagine such customer-complaint aspects are rather similar.

I attempted to respond to you in-game, but can't /tell you when you're /busy
And, of course, if this is going on again, I fully understand why you might be /busy

Try as best you can to play your game your way.
Keep fighting the good fight!

And thanks for putting up all those nicely-priced tools and gear.
You've nearly single-handedly outfitted my gatherers and crafters for my more-than-casual-but-not-really-hardcore-either playstyle

Although, it's strange thanking you for such a thing.
I didn't really buy them because I think you're a good person just trying to play a video game (that's simply a nice side-effect). I bought them because I wanted good quality, and reasonable prices. The fact that you were the one I purchased such things from is more an expression of thanks than any post full of words can describe anyway.

Have fun!